Many ASC members have the renewal date of 1 September, which is fast approaching. Kali will send reminders to those who need to renew then but it’s timely for me to offer a few reasons to make sure you’re financial.

We have had a busy year to date with our very successful national conference in Sydney in February. Since then we have been participating in the National Audit of Science Engagement Activities. The audit report will come out by mid-November along with data visualisations to enable you to interactively compare key data fields.

We have also struck an agreement with Inspiring Australia to communicate updates of the IA Strategy to our members from mid-2012 to mid-2014. There is an opportunity for financial members to participate in this communication activity.

We are planning the next national conference to be held in February 2014 and will be inviting members to help develop the program. The conference will be bigger and even better than before with an enhanced science-as-art exhibition, more workshops and social events.

The ASC has grown to over 540 members. Our branches are busy with events and workshops which are either free to members or at generous member’s discounts.

We have closer relationships with the federal and state chief scientists, and federal and state science departments and communicators in various groups. Other organisations are seeking to work with us or benefit from our expertise. Over the year numerous job opportunities have appeared on our e-list. Members have been active in expressing their views on a range of issues both on the e-list and website.

My impression is that opportunities in science communication are increasing and your membership and activity contribute to this positive change.

Renewing your membership enables you to make use of benefits and powerful communication tools such as:

• access to the national conference and local ASC events at members’ rates,
• posting rights on our two e-mail lists reaching a database of more than 1100 readers,
• author rights on our web site (see http://www.asc.asn.au/),
• receipt of our online magazine SCOPE,
• access to our professional networking social media groups such as LinkedIn and Facebook,
• access to ASC-associated organisations’ events at discounted rates,
• voting rights at General Meetings and much more.

The cost of membership is still:

• Individual membership is $88 per annum (incl. GST)
• Student membership (with appropriate ID) is $35.20 (incl. GST)
• Associate membership (with explanation) is $35.20 (incl. GST)
• Corporate membership is $528 (incl. GST).

Jesse Shore
ASC President